BMELTET – Blending MOOCs into English language teacher education with telecollaboration

This paper reports on how the FutureLearn Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) Becoming a Better Teacher was blended into English Language Teaching (ELT) university programmes in conjunction with telecollaboration. It discusses how the addition of a MOOC blend can enhance a telecollaborative exchange by adding to it increased opportunities for social collaborative interaction on a global scale. Blending MOOCs into English Teacher Education with Telecollaboration (BMELTET) fosters the students’ reflection on online and blended learning and teaching to support their future teaching practice. The paper illustrates how participating students – undergraduate ELT students from Spain and postgraduate ELT students studying in the UK – participated in both synchronous and asynchronous exchanges on the MOOC content. The discussion will focus on how a holistic approach to the integration of technology into language teacher education programmes with a blend of formal and informal platforms can support students in reflecting on their beliefs.